Selected Poems
by Wr1t3r96
Summary: Rose keeps getting poems in the post. There's never a name attached, and every time it's a different owl. They're getting more frequent. Anything to keep her mind off what's brewing out in the wizarding world
1. Chapter 1

The night sky had always been an interest of mine. Space, as a whole, was fascinating. The stars, billions of light years away, illuminating the darkness of a small, insignificant planet. The moon had set a few hours ago and yet I still couldn't sleep. The sun would be rising soon. The pale glow was just bright enough that I could see my calendar hung up on the wall opposite, just above the desk. I knew I was tired, I could feel the weariness within me, but I still couldn't sleep. The bank holiday weekend in August was always my favourite. The festival and then the sleepover at the Burrow; but dread was filling me, and I had no idea why. I loved my family. I loved our tradition. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. I pulled my phone out from under my pillow; 4:51. Why did I feel so weird? I wanted to see my family. I wanted to go back to – this would be the last sleepover where I was at Hogwarts. The feeling in my chest tightened. It wasn't like after this there weren't going to be anymore: Lucy was only twelve. _It won't be the same. That's what that feeling is. Dreading the future, dreading change._ It was much easier to drift off under the stars when I worked out why I was so worried.

* * *

Five hours' sleep isn't too bad. Not a healthy amount, but manageable. Hugo and dad were already playing chess and mum had barricaded herself behind a wall of papers; a normal morning. "Good morning sweetheart." I could barely hear her. How thick was that stack of paper?

"Morning." I said with a yawn, disappearing into the kitchen. I blearily pulled a bowl and grabbed what I thought was a spoon before dropping the box of cereal on the floor. "Bloody hell." So maybe five hours of sleep isn't enough to function. Dad cleaned up the mess with one wave of his wand.

"What time did you get to sleep?" I started pouring the cornflakes into the bowl before turning away from him to get the milk.

"A normal time, you know, that normal people fall asleep at…" I could feel his stare on my back as I pulled the bottle out of the fridge, "five o'clock." Dad sighed.

"Rosie… that isn't ok." _That's a fork._ I grabbed a spoon from the dishwasher.

"I know dad; it wasn't like I did it on purpose. I don't know what it was. I just couldn't fall asleep!" I said in between spoonful's of cornflakes. He didn't say anymore; instead he wandered back into the living room to try and beat his son at chess. I stayed put in the kitchen, not wanting to get drawn into a game with Hugo and not wanting to disturb mum. Mum, however, walked into the kitchen, a file in her hand, crazy hair hidden in a bun with a pen sticking through it. "What time did you wake up this morning mum?"

"Five." She barely looked up. Her boss was retiring and the head of the department of law enforcement was up for grabs. Everyone knew mum was going to get it; everyone except mum. She didn't like to assume anything. Her work was impeccable, she had done more for the department than any other employee, done more for muggleborns than anyone else, and had basically been told on multiple occasions that she'd be running the department when old Ross Catach retired. Kingsley had literally spelled it out for her once, she still refused to lower her work ethic by even a Planck. But that was Hermione Granger: ever the perfectionist. She filled up her mug before disappearing once again behind her work. I couldn't be bothered walking and apparated back into my room. The attic room was mine, the sloping ceilings and big windows were wonderful, brilliant for taking photographs. The camera sat on my desk. Something I would definitely need tonight. _Better start getting my crap together._

* * *

At three o'clock that afternoon, I hugged my parents and took Hugo to the Burrow. He hated side-along but there was no other way: we'd run out of floo powder. When we landed, Hugo promptly puked on the step outside the back door. "Hu!" I had only just managed to jump out of the way but I still ended up with some vomit on my shoes.

"Sorry Rosie, you know I hate side-along."

"You're going to be useless when you're learning to apparate." I cleaned it up before letting myself in.

 _Welcome to the thunderdome._

* * *

Nana and Grandpa Weasley were bustling about in the kitchen, the boys were trying to organise a game of quidditch when my best friend and her brother walked in. "Great!" Shouted James over the racket, "Everyone's here!" hugs had to be quick and brief before Teddy ushered everyone outside.

"Be back in before six!" Nana shouted. While everyone else was grabbing their brooms and going out to the field, I pulled Bella into a tight hug.

"Oh my god I've missed you!" Bella repeated my sentiments as we hugged for a few minutes. Alice came over and we enveloped her into our hug too.

"Can you believe we're starting our last year at Hogwarts in less than a week?" Alice asked when we finally separated. Alice and I had always been friends; her dad, professor Longbottom was one of dad's and Uncle Harry's best friends. Bella had been different. She was sorted into Gryffindor, unlike her brother, unlike the rest of her family. We had been put into the same dormitory and I was obviously wary of her; that was until she put a poster of the Holyhead Harpies above her bed. We'd been best friends ever since. Alice was a little put out when she found that another person was entering our group, but she soon understood and we had sleepovers in the Gryffindor dorms all the time. Sneaking her in was easy, making sure nobody knew Alice, a Hufflepuff, was staying in the Gryffindor rooms periodically was less so. We managed though. "By the way, Rose, what have you done to your hair? Trying to get that Malfoy platinum blonde?" Bella demonstrated by running her hand through her gorgeous hair: perfect blonde and curly. She looked like an elf; not a house elf, but a Lord of the Rings elf. I had only dyed the ends, it was going to wash out before the start of term.

"Some very wonderful, very attractive Grecians did it. Told me I looked like a goddess." I flicked my rampant curls in her face.

"It looks amazing. You should make it permanent!" Alice gushed as we walked outside to join the game.

"Hell no! Dad would have a fit. He hates it now; if I said it was never going to go away, I think he would shave my head!"

"By the way Ro, please please don't antagonise -"

"Bell, if he does it first I'm not just going to stand by and let him get away with being a jackass."

"I know, but you're my best friend and Scorp is my brother! What do you want me to say?" I put my hands on her shoulders and gave her a pitying look.

"Bella, you've been trying to get Scorpius and I to be sort of friends ever since we started school. I'm sorry but it isn't going to happen! He's too much of a dick." Bella gave me a look. She may be tiny, but that didn't stop her from being incredibly tough.

"Rose. It has been nearly seven years. This little feud between the two of you is ridiculous! Deal with your crap, please." I sighed. It wasn't like Scorpius and I hated each other, we just weren't friends. He was an arse and I didn't put up with it. Bella gave me her patented 'I will get you for this' look before stalking off towards the others. She looked like an angry little pixie. It was always amusing when you looked at the Malfoy twins. They were obviously very similar, but Scorpius was, apparently, the spitting image of his dad whereas Bella was a perfect balance between her two parents. I had met Astoria two years ago at Diagon Alley, but I had never met Draco; he worked at St Mungo's which was where I was desperate to work. I had managed to convince Alice's mum to let me work with her in the infirmary at Hogwarts, just to learn a bit more.

"Rosie! Stop daydreaming and get over here!" Hugo snapped me out of my reverie and I ran over to the large group. Victoire was sitting out, being five months pregnant and all. That kid was going to be incredible. Louis and Lucy were sat with Vic on the side-lines. Lucy was only twelve and so we were never keen on her playing with us and Lou was always the referee.

"Shall we pick captains?" Teddy asked, rubbing his hands on his jeans. He was always fidgeting, he had never been able to stay still for more than about ten seconds. Everyone nodded and Teddy put his wand in the middle of his palm. It spun round quickly before landing on Dominique. The second time, the wand chose Teddy. He insisted he hadn't cheated. "Dom, you pick your purple team."

"Albus" she said quickly.

"James" Teddy shot back. As the captains were choosing, armbands appeared around the boys' wrists: purple for Albus, and orange for James.

"Hugo"

"Freddie"

"Molly"

"Rose"

"Lorcan"

"Lily"

"Lysander"

"Bella"

"Alice"

"Rox"

"Scorpius"

"Frank"

"I'm a little put out guys. Picked last? I'm a professional Quidditch player!" Frank was a tad touchy when his new found status as a professional wasn't respected.

"Frank, you're a reserve. Everyone gets picked last at some point." Alice, ever the voice of reason, shut down her elder brother's argument very quickly. "Dad wouldn't like you bragging." He nodded and walked over to the south end of the pitch with the rest of the orange team. Teddy had changed his hair.

"Right orange team. We all know what we're doing; I think I'm stood in front of the most successful Gryffindor team ever right now." We looked between us. Everyone on the orange team, apart from Teddy, was a Gryffindor. The Weasley Potter Gryffindor team had won six years in a row thanks to all of our amazing skills. James and Freddie both got on the team in their second year and had won ever since. They were incredibly modest about it. "Anyway, Rose, James, Bella and I will be chasers, Roxy you're our keeper, Freddie, Frank, you're obviously beaters and Lil, get that snitch before your brother does." We were all stood in a circle now, watching Teddy pass out the positions we all knew so well. "Let's do this!" as a team we moved towards the centre of the pitch. James and I were the lead chasers, moving closer to the purple team than the others. Lily was already on her broom, zooming past our heads. Louis had pulled the trunk to the middle of the field. We always skipped the handshake. When we were all in position, Louis let the bludgers and snitch free before holding the quaffle.

"I want a nice clean game." He said, echoing the sentiment of the now ancient flying instructor, and threw the quaffle into the air, slightly above our heads. I managed to grab it before Dominique. Leaning forward, I sped away from the other chasers, avoiding a bludger Lorcan had sent my way. I knew James was right behind me and I could see Scorpius on my right. Hugo, like dad, was an amazing keeper, but he had one problem; he was brilliant at guarding, but he sometimes went too soon. I made to throw the quaffle at the left post, but instead threw it to James. Hugo had already gone towards the left post, leaving the other two open for James to score the first ten points.

* * *

An hour and a half later the score was 160 purple, 100 orange. Scorpius, Molly, Alice, and Dominique were incredibly talented chasers. Lily and Al were staying above the action, desperately searching for the snitch. As I flanked Teddy, keeping Dominique from knocking the quaffle out of his arms, I spotted the snitch. When James had become captain in his fifth year, he had developed a set of signals just in case another member of the team spotted the snitch before the seeker. Teddy managed to get the ball through the right post, and I quickly caught Lily's eye. Albus was looking in the other direction, but I knew Lil wouldn't want to let him know that she had seen the snitch. They were both circling, before Lily stopped about 200 metres from the snitch. Albus carried on going. Lily shot towards the snitch before Albus noticed. "Al! Get your head out of your ass! Your sister's going to catch it!" Scorpius yelled towards Al who finally saw Lily streaking towards the ball. I had the quaffle now, everyone was preoccupied with the seekers, who were racing towards the little gold streak in the sky. Scorpius was right by me, making sure I didn't get the quaffle past him again. My broom just had the edge on his; the new nimbus 5000 I had received as a gift for becoming head girl put his older model to shame. I could hear Teddy yelling as I scored another goal. Lily was still ahead of Al as she reached out for the ball. "Merde! Lucy, what's the score?" I heard Victoire frantically adding the scores up.

"Purple have 160 and Orange has 260."

"Orange win!" Teddy had Lily on his shoulders. James and Freddie were yelling loudly. Dom was consoling her team on the other side of the field. All very average reactions to a simple family game of Quidditch.

* * *

Nana and grandpa had left just after dinner. It was tradition to leave the kids of the Weasley Potters alone for the back to school sleepover. Normally there was some adult supervision, but Teddy and Vic had gone home. Dom was in charge this evening. "Alright boys, can you have your own party downstairs or will you be coming to crash ours again?" the boys all looked offended at Dom's insinuation. They had no previous instances on their side though: every year the boys lasted about half an hour before descending on us in the attic. We always liked to have a bit of a girly evening; painting our nails, doing our hair, just talking, but the boys always appeared and demanded we play with them. "We just like to be together guys!" James insisted. I think all of us gave him a look at that point before we disappeared upstairs, and the boys stayed in the living room.

"I have an idea of what we can do." I said as we walked into the large attic. "I feel that we should build a fort; like the whole room." Before long blankets were being thrown about, there were cushions everywhere, and someone had strung up fairy lights. Dom had made a sign that said "No boys allowed!" and I had charmed the blankets so they couldn't physically get in. Roxy was already painting Alice's nails when I got the camera out of my bag. I loved taking pictures of my family.

"Rosie! No pictures! I'm all sweaty and gross!"

"Yeah right Dom. Like you could ever look gross." She threw her arm around my shoulder and I snapped a picture of the two of us.

"Good point." She said, laughing as she grabbed a handful of popcorn.

"I've got a game for us to play." Bella said when we were all sat down, crazy hair and awesome nails done. "It's called Cards Against Humanity." Roxy, Lily, and Molly all started laughing extremely loudly.

"Yes! That is the best game!" Molly finally managed to say. It was then that there was a loud exclamation of pain from outside the fort.

"You have to knock!" I yelled. There was a knock on the blanket door. "And you have to know the password!" the girls all started giggling quietly as Bella dealt out the cards.

"Rosie let us in!"

"You said you'd leave us alone Jamie." I shot back. "Should we let them in?"

"It wouldn't be the sleepover without the boys appearing." I pulled myself from the warm cushions to open the blankets up.

"You guys built a fort." James said, a huge smile on his face.

"Yes we did. Do you want to come in?"

"Yes please." The boys filed into the fort. Scorpius stole my spot and I had to sit on Bella's knee. I kept my camera close as the game began.

* * *

Five days later I found myself in my room for the last time until Christmas. It was weird. I had all of my clothes and books packed; I had double checked the books. My laptop was tucked inside its case and was resting on top of the clothes, my camera was in my bag with _Down and Out in Paris and London_. While I knew I would be slightly busy this train ride, I always had a book with me. Mum had recommended the Orwell; I obviously accepted given that _Animal Farm_ and _1984_ are two of my favourite books. Pippin was still wandering about, pouncing on bits of dust. Along with the broom, mum and dad had given me a kitten for becoming head girl. He was a gorgeous little Cymric, with a huge amount of hair. Pippin was my favourite character in _The Lord of the Rings_ and already the little cat was just like his namesake. As I was tucking my robes into my bag, mum walked in. She was always a little fragile when Hu and I were on our way back to school. She smiled at me as she sat down on the bed. I didn't need to say anything, I simply sat next to her; she put her arm around my shoulders.

"I still can't believe it's your last year at Hogwarts." She said, her voice a little thicker than usual. I didn't want to mention her work, knowing it would only upset her. She'd been buried under her work for weeks; she had ink all over her hands, there was some on her face… she looked like a wreck. "Are you nearly ready? We'd better get going soon."

"Yeah mum, I'm nearly ready." My head was still on her shoulder. My mum and I were very close; going away to Hogwarts was always difficult because I missed my parents so much. "I think I've got everything; I just need to get Pippin in his cage." Mum laughed a little.

"Crookshanks always hated being in that cage. I used to get him out when we were on the train. Pip may be a tad too little though." The little fluffball was tearing round the room, attacking the floor and falling over. I could feel the tears stinging at my eyes. "If you cry now, you won't cry on the train." I laughed as the tears started to fall. Everything was suddenly hitting me. This was the last first day of school. I would never have a first day again. Next year when Hu goes, I won't be getting on the train with him. "Sweetheart, it's ok. There are going to be so many things in your life that you can look forward too. Just because this is the last time you're starting school doesn't mean you should be upset. This is exciting! You're going to be Head Girl."

"I know all that, but it's just… I don't know, it's scary." Mum kissed my forehead as I pushed myself of the bed. _Keep moving, stop crying._ "I think I've got everything. Did I get my transfiguration book? I think I left it on the table."

"I saw you grab it this morning. You're going to have a great year Rosie, I know you will." Mum smiled before walking towards the door, she turned and said, "it's nearly time to go. The head girl needs to be on the platform early."

* * *

It was basically the minute we arrived on the platform that I changed into my robes. The dress code was less strict when students entered their final year. I didn't have to wear a skirt or tie; as long as I was wearing a white shirt, it didn't matter what else I had on. My badge was pinned proudly on my robes, shining every time it caught the light. "Woah, flashback." Uncle George said when I walked back to the family, which now included every Weasley-Potter going back to Hogwarts and their parents.

"I need to help get the first years settled on the train." I said to my parents. It was only half ten, but some students had already made their way onto the train. "And we need to get a good compartment. I'll be back in a minute." I grabbed my trunk and hoisted it onto the train.

"You do remember you're a witch don't you Weasley? _Perfusorius._ "

"Why thank you for reminding me Malfoy. Being a witch had completely slipped my – what is that?!" Malfoy looked down at his chest and smirked.

"Yep. I'm head boy. Do you… you're the head girl aren't you?" he finished monotonously. "Please excuse me," he dropped my trunk, "I need to go and find my sister." He stalked off in a flurry of robes. I sighed angrily, possibly scaring away a first year or two, and pushed my trunk to a compartment; one that already had Bella in it.

"Hey Bell." I said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Hey Rosie. I thought I'd wait until someone else appeared before I said bye to my parents. I'll be back in a minute."

"Why didn't you tell me Bell?" she avoided eye contact with me, instead focusing on the students passing behind us.

"You were pissing me off. You and Scorp are so similar, why can't you just -"

"We aren't friends Bella! We will never be friends. Maybe it is because we're too similar, or maybe it's because he's a bit of a jackass, either way it isn't going to happen. Stop trying!" she looked me straight in the eye now; _though she be but little she is fierce._

"Stop doing that! You are my best friend and he is my brother. Please just stop being so childish!" We had attracted a bit of a crowd. I could feel them staring at me. I quickly waved my wand, silencing the compartment and fogging up the window.

"I am not being childish Bella. He started this; you know that. Please stop pushing this. I've tried, I have, but it's no use and you know that. I will be civil. We're going to be working together this year and I know things will have to change, but we are never going to be friends." Instead of answering, she pushed past me and had disappeared before I could say anything else.

* * *

"Mum! I need to get on the train!"

"I know love, but I miss you when you're gone. Write to us!" I was leaning out of the window with Hu and Lily, watching Lucy trying to extricate herself from her mother. Everyone else was stood back, near the entrance to the platform. Lucy had finally jumped on the train with only two minutes to spare. The entire Weasley-Potter group was pressed up against the windows, waving furiously as the train started moving. Aunt Ginny and mum were both crying. _So this is it. The last time._ My heart clenched. The last time I would be on the train on the first of September. Molly and Lucy had wandered off to find their friends, Albus had gone to find his fellow Slytherins, while the rest of us squeezed into a compartment. Lorcan and Lysander had found us about twenty minutes into the journey. It was definitely uncomfortable with eight people in one tiny space. Lily had ended up on Lysander's lap, and Bella and I had been forced next to each other; apparently no one else could notice the awkwardness between us. Luckily, I had to leave to greet the prefects. Unfortunately, nearly everyone in the compartment were prefects: only Lysander and Bella were left. "We'll see you guys in a few." Lily said, practically skipping out the door. She and Hu were first time prefects; she was a bit more excited about it than he was.

"Why do I have to do this? I don't want to be a prefect!"

"You were chosen Hu, that's a big honour. Plus, you saw how happy it made mum. Like you would do anything to make her unhappy." I put my arm around his shoulder. It wasn't an easy feat; Hu had inherited dad's gangly stature and had grown to about six feet. "Bend down! I can't reach you!" Hu smirked at me so I hit him. We overwhelmed the room, it was like last year when the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team was a Weasley or a Potter. Malfoy was stood in the corner, chatting with two of the Slytherin prefects; for the life of me I couldn't remember their names. "Oh good, everyone's here." Malfoy walked over to the middle of the room. I quickly joined him as everyone else sat down. Malfoy gestured for me to talk first.

"So, hi everyone. I'm Rose, this is Scorpius," I pointed to him, he awkwardly waved, "and we are your heads this year. This is just a formality so you all know who we are and we can start getting to know all of you. Ermm, we'll have a patrol schedule ready at some point next week and we've got quite a few things to plan for this year. So… here's to a great year! Malfoy, anything you want to add?"

"No, I think you covered it all. Oh, Slytherins, if you're on the Quidditch team Albus wants a word." He nodded, before walking out with his house's prefects. I walked back over to Hu and the others.

"That was fun…" I said, thinking that the meeting would have been a little longer than it was.

"You said we'd have a lot to plan; what did you mean?" Lily asked me.

"Oh, you know how we have the yule ball and the anniversary ball? McGonagall wants to add a couple more, so we have to decide and plan them." Lily looked excited, so did Roxy, Alice, and Lorcan. Hu did not. Lily and Roxy immediately started whispering about the possibilities of when the dances could be as they walked out of the room.

"I wonder why Scorp was so quiet in there? You'd have thought he would have done a whole spiel about how amazing he is." Alice said. She was right. That did sound like him.

"I'm going to go talk to him. Do you know how far down the Slytherins are?" Alice shrugged and I set off in search for Malfoy, Al, and the rest of their Slytherin buddies.

* * *

Al was in a compartment that was basically at the other end of the train. They were playing exploding snap, which was how I managed to find them. When in search of Al and Malfoy, always follow the smoke. It was pouring out of their compartment in huge plumes. I took absolutely no pleasure in seeing them all fall out of the little room coughing and spluttering… well, maybe a little. I am human. "Oh merlin. Are we about to get busted by the head girl already?"

"Shove off it Carson. Rosie wouldn't do that, I'm her favourite cousin."

"Actually Lily is. Or maybe James… basically any Potter that isn't you. Can you get up or are you all incapable?" as four basically identical smirks got thrown my way they all attempted to get up, just as the train jolted and they all fell down again. "I have never been so thankful I have my camera."

"Is there a reason you're here _dolce Rosa_ , or is it just to see me?" Zabini had managed to get himself up first and had ended up with his arm around my shoulders.

"Yes, I'm here to see you" I said, in my most monotonous drawl, "we can go at it right here in front of my cousin." Albus looked like he was about to murder Zabini, and me.

" _Se lo si desidera dolce Rosa_ "

" _Nei tuoi sogni, coglione._ I need to talk to Malfoy." Zabini looked thoroughly surprised that I could speak Italian. Languages fascinated me; I wanted to know as many as possible. Malfoy was stood behind the others, his eyes found mine and he nodded once before pushing his way through his friends.

"I'll be back in a minute." We walked to the very end of the train, to the little balcony that sat at the end of the last carriage. It was cold, the trees were dancing in the breeze as the train rushed past on its journey. It was beautiful being out here; so peaceful and quiet. "What do you want Weasley?"

"Look, I know we're not friends, despite Bella's attempts to make us otherwise" he scoffed, agreeing at his twin sister's crazy wants, "but this year we are going to have to put aside our differences and work together. I'm not suggesting we become besties or any such nonsense, but we need to communicate."

"I agree." He was very quiet today. It was odd, Malfoy was always very animated.

"Are you ok? You seem a little off."

"I'm fine."

"Fine? Even I can see something is wrong. Al and the rest of your posse must have got it out of you. I mean, you barely said anything in the meeting."

"You covered everything. I didn't think there was anything left to say."

"Please, you take any opportunity to talk about yourself, and if you didn't notice, I wasn't exactly waxing lyrical about how amazing you think you are." He stared at me, his eyes narrowing slightly. They looked like storm clouds.

"I'm fine Weasley. Back off. I agree that we need to work together, and I also agree that we are not friends, so don't even think about trying to talk to me about something that is none of your business. Do you understand?" he had got very close to me when he was talking. I wasn't usually scared of people, but I had inherited my height from Grandma, and I was barely 5'5". Malfoy was at least 6'2". He didn't wait for me to answer. Instead he yanked the door open and stormed off, pushing students out of the way as he stalked back to his friends. _What a year this will be._


	2. Chapter 2

Hogwarts always looked so beautiful in the dark; the lights illuminated every tiny window, the forest looked like a mass of darkness creeping its way towards the castle, and the lake was a pale silver under the light of the moon. Absolutely beautiful. I could have stared at it for days when it looked like this; as if nothing in the world could touch it, away from civilisation and better off because of that. "Don't you have to go find Malfoy again Rosie?" Hu was watching me; he knew how upset I was feeling about this being my last year. He could be an insensitive arse but sometimes he really got it spot on.

"Yeah. I'll see you guys later. If you get in before me, save me a seat!" I was out the door and once again making my way down to the end of the train. Malfoy had been so strange earlier. If I had noticed, the boys must have. On my way down I passes a few people I knew; I saw Lucy sat with her second-year friends, and I popped my head in just to make sure she was ok, and lots of people greeted me as I wandered through the sprawling mass of cars. I found my way back to Al's compartment. I knocked gently as I pushed the door aside. "Where's Malfoy? We need to be on the platform first."

"He left a few minutes ago. I think he went that way." Al said, pointing down towards the end of the train. He didn't seem suspicious of Malfoy's behaviour, neither did the other boys. How dense could they be?

"Alright, thanks Al." he nodded as I left them to their own devices. I walked again back to the end of the train. I wasn't sure how much I wanted to go out there; the last time had left an impression on me. Malfoy and I had never been exactly friendly but we had never been outright cruel to one another. He had really scared me. We had never gone that far. I could see him leaning on the small railing that lined the balcony, his pale hair looked like the lake had done: silvery. He had grown very tall over the past few years, Al was always complaining that no one would ever notice he was there because Malfoy towered over him. I stood at the door for a moment. I knew in my mind that I needed to talk to him, that I would be talking to him a lot this year, but I couldn't turn the handle and go out there with him. I had never fared well with confrontation. _For Merlin's sake Rose!_ I pushed the door open. He didn't make any move to show he knew I was there. "Malfoy? We need to get to the doors first, so we can help with the first years."

"Yeah, I'm coming." His voice sounded different, thicker… or gravelly?

"Are- Are you ok?" Malfoy spun around very quickly to look at me. In the moonlight, he looked even paler than usual.

"I told you to back off Weasley." He pushed past me again, almost knocking me over. I stumbled but managed to catch myself on the railing instead of falling off the train. _At least I can tell Bella I tried._

* * *

After we had finished rounding up all of the first years and sending them down to the boats, Malfoy and I were the last two people on the platform. I could still hear Hagrid's booming voice as he led the nervous firsties down to the lake. It was lucky that there was still one carriage left, an awkward ride was better than an awkward walk, plus Malfoy would have left me behind had we had to walk, his legs being about three feet longer than mine. He walked behind me slightly as we made our way over to the last carriage. It was strange seeing him like this. Malfoy had always been very boisterous, like Bella, but now… he was quiet and reserved; he didn't tease me about my crazy hair, he hadn't made any jokes about the first years. He was different. _Quiet Malfoy doesn't argue either._ He had overtaken me somewhere on the way to the rickety cart. I wasn't really paying anything much attention until I was suddenly hit with the realisation that I could barely get up into the coach with Hu or James, let alone by myself. _Could I walk all that way?_ No. _I can do this._ I put my hand on the side of the doorway and attempted to pull myself up. I could feel my hand slipping as my feet missed the edge. I prepared myself for the pain as I knew I would land awkwardly on my feet. It was only a second later, when I noticed that we were moving, that I realised Malfoy had saved me from injuring myself. "Thanks." I whispered. I saw him smirk a little, it felt almost normal to see that.

"Well, if you were taller I wouldn't have had to do that. You really should try and grow more." There it was. This was normal. We didn't say anymore on the short ride up through the forest. I wouldn't have heard him if he did talk. Dad and uncle Harry had always made us promise to never ever go into the forest, because it was dangerous, because there were things in there that we would never be able to survive. The argument that they obviously did never went down well. Telling me I wasn't allowed to do something was never a good idea; I may have been a little Hermione Granger, but I was also a Weasley. I had only ever gone in a little way, never to the dense part of the forest, and always with Hagrid. I wanted adventure, I wanted to be swept out of my door on a crazy journey that sent me off to the most amazing places in the world; I wanted Gandalf to come and ask me to share an adventure. I sighed. I also wanted to help people, to become a healer and save people. The latter was the sensible dream, the one that I knew I did want, but if I could leave and disappear in the far reaches of the world, I would. The carriage rolled to a stop. Malfoy let me jump out first and I started walking up to the doors. He quickly caught up with me but he slowed his pace so we could walk through the doors together.

* * *

"Welcome students. Welcome to another year at Hogwarts." McGonagall had stood in front of the teacher's table to address the school. As was tradition on the first night the tables were separated by houses; tomorrow they would be in a large square, allowing students of all houses to sit together. "Before we start our wonderful feast, I would like to congratulate this year's head boy and girl; Scorpius Malfoy," there was a large roar from the Slytherin table, and a few squeals from some others – Bella was cheering extremely loudly, "and Rose Weasley." Never have I heard such a commotion. It seemed like every student in the hall was screaming. I could see that Al had stood up over at the Slytherin table. It was extremely touching. "Yes, congratulations to the two of you. I'm sure this will be an excellent year for you both. One last quick reminder before we dig in, the forbidden forest is, as the name suggests, forbidden for students. I hope you all have a wonderful year at the school; let the feast begin!" Food appeared on the plates in front of us and, as usual, there were mystified gasps as it did so. The house elves had really outdone themselves tonight. I immediately started grabbing food from every plate. "Rose?" Bella asked.

"Mmm?" I had a large amount of chicken in my mouth at that particular moment.

"I wanted to apologise for earlier, I should have told you and I'm sorry I keep trying to force a friendship between the two of you. It isn't fair."

"Thas" I swallowed "fine Bell, I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have got angry." We fought a lot did Bella and me, but we always made up about an hour later; there was too much to talk about.

"Did you guys get in a fight again?" Bree asked. Bree Finnigan was one of the girls in our dorm. She was nice enough but we had never been particularly great friends. She was the daughter of Seamus and Lavender Brown. Mum was never keen on the fact I was sharing a room with the "spawn of Lavender" and so I may have always had a jilted view of her. She was very close with Indra Thomas, daughter of Dean and Pavarti.

"How can you guys fight so much and still stay friends? You would think that after a while you'd get sick of each other." Indra and Bree were sat a few places down.

"Well, I'm glad that our conversation is so riveting that you felt the need to eavesdrop on it," Bella said, spitting the words out at the pair who quickly turned away from us. Lily was sat opposite us, laughing. "I can't believe you are leaving me alone with them this year. It's very selfish of you to abandon me."

"I'm sure I can sneak you into my room every now and again. If they get too bad, just go to the room of requirement."

"Or you can come into my dorm," Lily interjected. Bella looked slightly better now she knew there were options for her.

"I could just stay in the common room forever…" she laughed, "I'm sure I can deal with those two idiots. They're both doing divination though. If they ask to read my aura or predict my future I'm going to murder them." The straight face was a little worrying. I wouldn't put it past her to do some damage if they tried anything like that. Divination was a ridiculous subject. Roxy was sat on the left of Lily, chatting with her friends. Lily always sat with us on the first night back. Roxy turned to us just as I finished my dinner.

"There's going to be a party in the Slytherin common room tonight. We've been specially invited by Al apparently."

"More likely that Zabini slimeball. You know he's got the hots for Rose."

"He's got the hots for anything with legs Lil," I said, after I had finished almost choking.

"Classes start tomorrow! We can't go." Bella said, looking over at the Slytherin table with slight disgust on her face. She was very studios, far more than I was, and never went to a party on a school night.

"Actually, they don't start tomorrow. McGonagall decided that the first years needed an extra day to get settled in so we start on Tuesday. It's also if anyone has any problems with their timetable and they need it changing."

"Oh. Well… do you think we should go?" Bella asked me. I never minded a party, the Slytherin ones were always quite rowdy; never Gryffindor rowdy, but rowdy in their own special way. Roxy and Lil were already discussing what they were going to wear.

"I need to go with McGonagall to see my new dorm and then we can go?" Bella nodded as dessert appeared in front of us. "Yes, treacle tart." I grabbed an unflattering huge slice and piled on a mountain of ice cream. I missed this place.

* * *

It felt like we had walked miles. One thing that always surprised me when I got back to Hogwarts was a number of stairs. We were close to the astronomy tower, close to the new Slytherin dormitories. After the war, they had been moved into one of the towers, like Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, so the house felt more included, as opposed to forgotten about in the dungeons. Defence against the dark arts had been moved into the transfiguration tower to make the space. The Slytherin common room was beautiful. We were in the astronomy tower. A wing had been added to accommodate the heads' common room and dorms. When Vic had been head girl, she was a real stickler for the rules and so we had never seen it; Louis was exactly the same, so I was extremely excited about finally seeing it. I had told Bella, Lil, Roxy, and Alice that we would be having a sleepover next weekend. McGonagall had been chatting to me about mum, dad, uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny as we made our way up. She was especially interested in hearing about mum and her work. "Here we are." She said, as we stopped in front of a painting of the night sky. It was a stunning landscape; stars dotted about and sparkling. "It reflects the sky outside, much like the ceiling in the great hall." McGonagall had seen my look of awe when we stopped in front of it. "The password is _usque in lucem._ I shall see you both soon. Goodnight." The aged witch walked away, leaving Malfoy and I stood in front of our new dormitories. As soon as we go into that room, we will officially be starting the year. Malfoy was silent, so I said the password. The wall around the painting seemed to disappear completely, the painting vanished when I said the words. It was incredible magic. Malfoy gestured for me to go first and I briskly walked into the new common room.

 _If this is what heaven looks like, kill me now._ The Gryffindor common room was wonderful, with its threadbare sofas and enormous fireplace, and the Slytherin common room was beautiful, green and majestic, but this was something else. The circular room was a tad smaller than Gryffindor, and the fireplace was nowhere near as big, but it wasn't that that had caught my eye. The far wall was covered in bookshelves, bursting at the seams with tomes; some lined neatly, and others shoved into whatever space was available. There were desks on either side, both underneath a window looking out on the lake. Three sofas were in front of the fireplace, which was a beautiful black with inlaid designs, and a small guard in front. Above us were our rooms; there was a balcony, like in Gryffindor tower, with two doors leading to our private rooms. _Private rooms._ That was the single greatest thing about being head girl. I didn't have to share a room with anyone. Malfoy was stood in front of one of the bookcases and I made my way upstairs. On each of the doors, there was a small etching. A Gryffindor lion and a Slytherin snake. Pushing open the door with the lion, I made my way into my room for the first time.

It was very similar to the dorm rooms in Gryffindor tower with a few obvious differences. There had never been any desks in the old dorms but, like downstairs, there was a beautiful wooden desk under the window. I had a huge wardrobe and mirror, and there was a door to the bathroom, I assumed. The bed though. It was a beautiful four poster bed, a double at least. Pippin was squealing loudly as he was still trapped in his cage. He had slept all the way on the train and now was screaming bloody murder. "Out you come little man," I whispered as he whipped out of there, his tail hitting me as he scampered around the room. According to mum, they had nearly got a jet black kitten but dad was freaked out by his lack of tail, so they got one of the 'longies.' If Pip didn't have a tail, he would fall over a hell of a lot. I smiled at the little cat as I opened the bathroom door.

"What the hell are you doing in my bathroom?!"

"Your bathroom? Oh no… we have to share a bathroom? That cannot be right." Malfoy was already in there when I pulled open the door. In any other circumstances it would have been a nice bathroom, but now it was a horrible place. "We're going to have to sort out when we can use it so there isn't any accidental – erm…"

"So I don't accidently walk in and see you on the toilet." He said.

"Yes, so something like that doesn't happen. I like having a shower before bed, I don't know about you; when do you shower?"

"In the morning, so that's sorted. Just make sure you lock the door. I don't want to have to gouge my eyes out or anything."

"Why thank you Malfoy, that's so kind." I stood with my arms folded guarding my room. "We need to start working on the patrol schedule and I assume you're going to the Slytherin party tonight?"

"Yeah I am, are you? Al invited you right?"

"Bella, Roxy, Lily and I are all going."

"Al will be pleased." Malfoy said with his head in the shower. "I cannot believe that we have to share this. You must have another bathroom and just found your way into mine." He pushed past me and ended up in my room.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"Just being nosy. What is that?" he pointed at Pippin, who had managed to roll himself off the bed.

"That is Pippin."

"As in Took?" he asked, looking over my room.

"Well yes – how did you know that?"

" _The Silmarillion_ is my favourite book. Have you read that one? A lot of people only read the trilogy and forget about Tolkien's other works."

"Of course I've read _The Silmarillion!_ I'm just surprised you have."

"Why, because I'm a Malfoy?"

"No. Bella hasn't read them. You're you, I didn't think about you reading anything muggle."

"Oh, so it's because I'm a pureblood? That's a bit rude Weasley."

"I didn't – that's not – I didn't mean it like that." I stammered. He smirked at me as he sat himself on my bed. Pippin leapt on Malfoy's feet and started hitting at them with his tiny paws. Malfoy was smiling at the little cat. "Why are you being so weird?" the smile on Malfoy's face dropped immediately. "You were very angry on the train and now, now you're you again. I'm sorry, I know you don't want to talk about it, it's just strange is all. I saw his face soften a little as he got to his feet.

"Get changed, I don't think you should go to the party in your uniform." And with that he left.

* * *

Someone had put on some muggle music at about half past ten. That was three hours ago. Bella and I were currently dancing very stupidly to "Shut Up and Dance With Me." It had taken a fire-whiskey or three to get me up and dancing, but Alice and Bell had pulled me out of my very comfortable seat and forced me to spend time with them. Alice had disappeared around midnight. "How're you guys doing?" Al had appeared by my side.

"Dance with me!" Bella grabbed and pulled Al off to dance somewhere else. Only when she was drunk did she ever sort of admit that she had a massive crush on her brother's best friend. I left the makeshift dancefloor to grab another drink.

" _Ciao bella Rosa._ " Zabini purred in my ear.

"Hello Zabini."

"No Italian today? I was pleasantly surprised last time. It's always a _pleasure_ " again, purred, "when someone speaks my native tongue." His tongue was practically in my ear. I may have been slightly tipsy, but I would never be tipsy enough for that to happen.

"I'm sure you and your tongue can go and find someone else to bother." I said, walking away, a fresh butterbeer in my hand and my eye on a windowsill that looked big enough to sit on. I was reminded, while looking out of the window, why I loved being in one of Hogwarts' towers. It was a beautiful sight to behold; no light pollution, just billions of stars. Before I could take a sip of my drink, a pale hand snatched it from my grip.

"I wouldn't drink that if I were you."

"Did that arse put something in my drink?"

"He did. He doesn't like being told no." Malfoy pushed the window open just enough to pour the tainted drink out.

"I'm going to go curse him," I jumped off the ledge, pulling my skirt down as I landed, "thank you for not letting me drink it."

"Anytime," He said, "although I wouldn't go and curse him outright if I were you. He'll be expecting the Gryffindor tactic. Try and think Slytherin." I looked up into the grey eyes of Malfoy. Bella had similar eyes, although hers were slightly more blue. The male Malfoy twin had eyes the colour of molten silver, earlier they had been the dark grey of storm clouds. They were quite beautiful. _Maybe I am drunk._

"He's a prefect. He was in the meeting on the train."

"Yeah, new prefect for this year."

"Taking away his badge wouldn't really bother him right?" Malfoy nodded, "so something that would piss him off… the schedule."

"What?"

"The patrol schedule! Out of all of the prefects, who does Zabini really hate, or who really annoys him? And what nights do you have Quidditch practice? Maybe we could put him in so he misses a few sessions…" while I was plotting, a smirk was growing on Malfoy's face.

"Maybe you should have been put in Slytherin."

"Don't even suggest such a thing." I said in mock anger, smirking too. "Can we sort out the schedules tomorrow?"

"Don't you mean today?"

"I haven't gone to sleep yet, therefore it isn't tomorrow yet." Malfoy laughed, a small chuckle, but deep. _Rose! Get a grip!_

"Yeah we can sort them out _tomorrow_."

"Urgh, don't say it like that. You sound like Zabini." He laughed again, this time a real laugh. "I'm going to go back to the dorms."

"I'll walk with you, if that's alright?" I nodded. Did I want to walk with him? The boy with the storms in his eyes and the rumble in his chest. _Not really._ "I'm just going to say bye to Al."

"I need to tell Bella I'm leaving." We walked off in different directions in search of the pair. Why I didn't think they would be together I had no idea, because there in the corner, practically inhaling each other, were Bella and Al. _Maybe keep Malfoy away from that._ Malfoy was luckily very easy to spot; the hair and the height worked very much in his favour. I pushed my way through the last of the dancers to get to him. He was talking to one of the other Slytherins that I knew he and Al were good friends with. Had he been with them on the train? I pushed my mind back to earlier on the train. I hadn't really paid a lot of attention to the other boy on the floor. Al and Malfoy were the ones I knew well, and Zabini was the one I knew I needed to avoid.

"Al's trying to get Thursday and Sunday morning for our practices. Apparently your little sister wants Sundays too." I am very sure Al will let Bella have anything she wants right now. Sunday mornings would be a good time for practice. _I hope she asks him now_ I thought, briefly looking back over to the pair. Al was pressing her up against the wall now. "Hi Weasley." I awkwardly waved at the boy. I did know him… Ancient runes!

"Nott. I spoke to Al and Bella so I'm going back to the dorm now. See you in runes." I said to Nott.

"Alright, I'll catch you up in a minute." Malfoy said. Nott awkwardly waved back as I turned towards the exit. Alone time. Perfect.

* * *

Silence was a strange thing, especially in a place that's normally so full of noise. Sneaking back from a party on the first day back at school is never a great thing; doing it as the head girl is probably even worse. _Where is that painting?_ I was frantically searching the hallway for the door into the common room. I could have sworn it was down here somewhere. I felt a hand touch mine. Whoever it was that touched me was smart enough to cover my mouth while I screamed.

"You're in the wrong hallway Weasley."

"Malfoy! What the hell are you doing? For merlin's sake! You almost gave me a heart attack!" he smirked at me.

"Well it's a good job you're going to be a healer isn't it?" I was slightly taken aback. Not many people knew that. Al still thought I wanted to be an auror. "Bella told me." He said, after watching my confused expression.

"Makes sense." We walked in silence for a little while. Malfoy very clearly had a better memory than I did. I had turned down the wrong hallway and got completely lost. To be honest, it was quite amazing he found me.

"Al will be devastated you don't want to be an auror anymore. He says that the three of us will rule the world when we've been trained." He laughed a little. "Maybe we should make sure he isn't going dark if that's what he thinks an auror does." It was nice, talking to Malfoy like this. We had never hated each other, there was just always a rivalry between us; we were constantly the top two students, both chasers on our house teams, and now the heads. Thinking back on the times I have really pushed myself to do better was when I knew he was either equal to or ever so slightly better than me. I wasn't used to this Malfoy – the chatty, almost friendly Malfoy; he was always just Al's best friend, Bella's twin brother. This Malfoy was a lot better than the Malfoy on the train had been. _Don't do it, you're getting along. Do not ask him again._

"Please don't ask Weasley."

"How did –"

"You get a look on your face when you're about to ask a question. I don't want to talk about it." _I get a look?_

"Can I just ask one thing?" he sighed, but nodded. "Getting here, getting back, it made you more like you again…"

"Is that the question?"

"No!" we were stood in front of the entrance to the common room now. "I was just wondering why?" he didn't answer, instead he said the password and walked into the common room. I rushed in after him to make sure I didn't get stuck outside. He stood for a moment in the centre of the room before walking up the stairs. Again I followed quite closely behind him. _Looks like you aren't getting the answer to that question and you pissed him off._ He paused at his door. I walked past him to get to mine, but before I could walk in and disappear somewhere in the bed, Malfoy had put his hand over mine on the door handle. This time he looked me straight in the eye as he whispered:

"I feel safe here."


	3. Chapter 3

I didn't wake up until gone ten, which was annoying: breakfast finishes at half eight. I contemplated going down to the kitchens or just staying in bed until lunch when Bella burst through the door. I didn't ask her how she knew where the dorm was, or how she got in, only this;

"Merlin, Bella. Did you get any sleep?" to be honest she looked insane: her hair was flying in every direction, her face was lacking its normal youthful glow, and she was wearing joggers.

"About two hours." She had finished flitting around the room and was now stood at the end of the bed, chewing on her thumb nail. I pulled her down onto the bed to stop her from biting it clean off.

"What happened to you? Wait… that's Al's jumper." I hadn't really noticed the jumper before; she had lots of green jumpers, many of which she had stolen from her brother. This one though was a Nana Weasley jumper. There was a stitch sewn in above the breast. "You didn't."

"We didn't… completely."

"Bella! What the hell? How far did you get?"

"What's the muggle term for this? Ermm, third basket?"

"THIRD BASE?!"

"Yeah that's –"

"YOU GOT TO THIRD BASE WITH ALBUS? WITH MY COUSIN?"

"Rose please stop shouting! Scorp might hear you." Malfoy was oblivious to Bella's crush on Al. he thought they were just friends.

"Sorry. You seriously did… _that_ with Albus?" Bella had scooted backwards on the bed so she could lean on the headboard. I was sat up staring at her incredulously. "You barely admit that you've had a crush on him for years –"

"I haven't had a crush on him for years."

"And now you're doing _stuff_ together! I can't believe this! I don't think I have ever needed coffee as much as I do in this moment."

"Let's go down to the kitchens. I'll tell you everything."

"Oh Merlin, please don't tell me everything. He's my cousin Bell."

"Right, sorry." She had the decency to look sheepish when we were talking. I was still trying to wrap my head around it. I didn't know that Al had feelings for Bella, if he even did… it was going to break her heart if it turned out she was just a bit of fun; and then Malfoy would break his face, after I did of course. I pushed myself out of bed and padded over to the wardrobe. _Bella and Al._ If he did have feelings for her, they would be the most adorable couple, like Louis and Lorcan, and Bella would be family, actually family and that would be wonderful. I pulled out a pair of black jeans and a blue t-shirt before grabbing some underwear.

"Weasley?" Malfoy said tentatively, knocking on my bathroom door. I grabbed my wand and waved it to let him into the room. "Can I – oh good, you found her."

"Ohh, he let you in. Makes sense." I said, nodding slightly. "What's up Malfoy?"

"I was just going to ask if we can do the schedule this afternoon. I'm meeting up with Albus and some of the guys for a little Quidditch practice this morning." I saw from the corner of my eye that Bella blushed at the very mention of Al. Malfoy didn't notice. He was staring at me.

"Yeah that's fine. We can do it after dinner if that's easier?"

"That would be great." He nodded once, waved at Bella and left. I burst out laughing the minute the door closed; Bella scowled at me.

"I'm sorry! But you went redder than my hair!"

* * *

We didn't say much on the way down to the kitchens. Bella and I had been best friends for so long that we didn't really need to say anything to each other; we had literally had conversations of just facial expressions. This was different though. Bella had never been one for guys, they had always been very interested in her but she never reciprocated. Studies always came first for Bell; there could be no distractions when perfect test scores were in reach – except Quidditch, Quidditch didn't count. The two of us had been evenly matched throughout Hogwarts, I had maybe edged a few tests, but normally we got extremely similar scores. The fact that we both wanted to be healers was another thing that we could strive for together. She was chewing her lip basically all the way down. I was sure by the time we got to the kitchens there would be blood. There were lots of students about this morning, rushing every which way. Some were going outside.

It was a beautiful day; the sun was streaming down through the clouds, illuminating certain patches of grass, various trees on the grounds. The lake would be glittering like broken shards of glass under a light. I was itching to get on my broom and fly about, maybe walk around the edges of the lake, wander through the trees on the edge of the forest. Just be… just be. I tickled the pear when we reached the kitchens, and I walked down the steep steps and into the bustling room. There were elves everywhere. Some were wearing ugly hats that my mother had sent. Her first bill when she started in the ministry, Dobby's Bill, was to give elves more rights; pay, holidays, living costs – the things wizards take for granted. There were some elves that vehemently opposed her help, that couldn't understand why she wanted them to stop working or expect anything from their masters. A few of the younger elves, and those in the Hogwarts kitchens readily accepted the bill. It passed unanimously when it came to the Wizengamot. "Misses! Good morning." A pair of small elves had appeared in front of us when we got to the bottom of the stairs.

"I is Reesy." One said, bowing so low his ears touched the floor.

"And I is Ceesy." Again, bowing. "What can we get for you Misses?"

"Hi, Reesy, Ceesy. Can we have two cups of coffee and some pancakes?" I turned to Bella who nodded vigorously. "Pancakes for both of us please."

"Yes Miss." Ceesy said before the pair of them scampered off to get us our breakfast. There was a large wooden table in the kitchens, similar to the one at the Burrow. It looked like it belonged in a farmhouse somewhere in the middle of nowhere. We sat down just as Reesy reappeared with two cups of coffee.

"Coffee for the Misses." He said.

"Pancakes for Misses." Ceesy had bounded back over to us with two plates of fluffy, golden brown pancakes, covered in syrup with raspberries and strawberries on the side. As we thanked them they bowed again, not as low as the first time but almost to the floor, and disappeared to help the others with making the lunch. Bella and I didn't start talking until after the pancakes had nearly gone and I was on my second cup of coffee.

"Tell me what happened." I said, after taking a long sip of my drink. The warmth ran down my throat, waking me up perfectly.

"You remember when we I sort of dragged him away to dance with me?" I nodded, "Well, after that we danced for a few songs, and it was nice. He was really sweet; I may or may not have been slightly drunk…"

"You were shitfaced."

"Slightly drunk." She reiterated, emphasising slightly. "Anyway, you know I'm a mess when I'm _slightly_ drunk, and he made sure I didn't fall over and that I had had some water. It was nice. Then _I Can't Help Falling in Love With You_ came on."

"Oh yeah. You slow danced?" I giggled, she slapped my arm.

"Yes, we slow danced. Like in those muggle films you've made me watch. We slow danced, he was looking in my eyes, I had my arms around his neck and then we were kissing. It was amazing. Do you remember when there was that mistletoe in the common room and I got stuck under there with Drew McKinney?"

"He slobbered all over your face."

"Worst first kiss ever. This wasn't anything like that. It was… perfect." She sighed, and looked dreamily at her pancakes. "And then it kind of escalated. One minute we were on the dancefloor thing, and the next he was pressing me up against the wall and dragging me up to his room."

"You can stop there!" I said, raising my hand at her. While I would have loved nothing more than to talk to my best friend all about her sexual exploits, my cousin was one step too far. "So what happened this morning?"

"Nothing. I got out of there before he woke up."

"You left? Did you leave a note or anything?"

"Well, no…"

"Bella! He's going to think –"

"Oh Merlin!" her hands were suddenly on her face; the only time I had ever seen her look this worried was when she thought she'd failed a transfiguration assignment – she got full marks. Without another word she leapt out of her seat and started running towards the door,

"Bella no! He's playing Quidditch with your brother!" she literally skidded to a stop, crashing into a house elf carrying a pile of plates taller than the house elf. Bella and the elf started apologising at the same time; I quickly repaired the plates and helped the elf get a hold of them once more.

"I'm really sorry." Bella said again as I dragged her up the stairs.

"Come on, we're going back to my room."

* * *

The two of us had been talking all afternoon; about what she should do, what she should say, what she should wear. I had basically shoved her into the shower when we got back to the dorm. If she was going to apologise for running out on Al this morning, she needed to look her best. At least three times she stood up, exclaimed that "this isn't important! I need to be focusing on NEWTs and not on a boy" before slumping down into the chair, or on the bed. This was important. Al wasn't just "a boy" not to Bella at least. Despite what she said, she had had a crush on Al since we started. He was sweet and funny and smart and she swooned over him, like every other girl. Unlike James, Al hadn't taken advantage of the Potter name and used it to have his way with pretty much every suitable girl in school. Al hadn't had many girlfriends, just a failed relationship with a Ravenclaw in fifth year – mum and dad said that was like Déjà vu, but never explained why. I looked at Bella out of the corner of my eye. I had been worried this morning about Al not reciprocating Bella's feelings, maybe there was no need. I thought back on some of the times we had all been together, trying to remember if Al had paid any extra attention to Bell. There was a memory from fourth year I think; it was a little fuzzy.

Bella and I had been sat by the lake. I was reading and she was trying to master accio. I kept being supportive, telling her it was getting closer and closer, when Al and Malfoy had appeared. Al walked straight over to Bella and showed her the proper way to wave her wand, even stood right behind her and waved her wand with her. Bella had been a giggling mess. I had just watched and smiled, because my best friend was happy and that was all that mattered. Malfoy had sat next to me, he didn't ask me about my book like most people did, he just left me to my reading. He had smelled like cinnamon.

He had smelled like cinnamon?! The whole memory was a bit fuzzy around the edges but that bit, Malfoy, had been in perfect view. He was wearing a jumper and black jeans; I remember thinking he looked good before chastising myself because it was Malfoy. Bella was stood in front of my wardrobe, rifling through the clothes I had brought with me. We had been sharing a room for so long that our clothes intermingled. I had no idea what was mine and what was hers: when we were at Hogwarts the wardrobe was communal.

"What says 'I'm sorry I ran away this morning and I would love for us to talk about what happened'?" she asked, turning round to look at me quizzically. It was odd, but I knew exactly what she needed to wear. I pulled out a simple green dress and black laced boots. The dress had been a gift from Aunt Ginny for my 17th birthday. I had only worn it once.

"This does. Go change and we'll wander over to the Quidditch pitch." She grabbed the dress and walked quickly into the bathroom. I had already told her to brush her teeth again and put on some perfume. It was exciting, and this whole thing was keeping my mind of the remembering everything about Malfoy in a random memory I had incident.

* * *

I had missed Hogwarts. I loved home, and Nana's, and every other Weasley-Potter household, but there was something about Hogwarts. It was still sunny when we got down to the Quidditch pitch; Al was zooming around on his new broom showing everyone else up. The four boys didn't notice us as we sat down in the Gryffindor stands. Bella looked nervous. I understood why; she had been basically in love with Al for years and the minute something actually happens between the two of them she runs away. _Take her mind off it._

"When are you going to have Quidditch trials? We need quite a few people this year."

"Oh! I hadn't actually thought about it. Do you know when the first game is?"

"It's supposed to be the second week in October. I know we've got a month but –"

"We'll need to train the new players. What positions do we need? Both beaters,"

"Another chaser," I added.

"And a keeper. It's going to be weird without James and Freddie. James was a brilliant captain." I nodded, agreeing completely. James had been an amazing captain; under his leadership we had lost one game in three years. Bella was going to have her work cut out for her.

"You know I'll help any way I can." I said. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

"I know you will. Thank you by the way."

"For what?"

"Distracting me." She said with a grin. I shrugged as I fi had no idea what she was talking about and turned back to the Slytherin boys tearing around the pitch. They were racing now. None of them had any chance against Al's new nimbus. It was Malfoy that spotted us first and he waved before elbowing Al. Even from this distance I knew Al wasn't even paying any attention to me. Bella sheepishly waved back. The Slytherins all landed very gracefully, which was extremely annoying; literally every time I land I trip over. It must come with the house. Zabini and Nott both walked off towards the castle while Al and Malfoy walked over to us.

"You can do this Bell. He likes you, I know he does."

"Really?" The hopeful look on her face was really adorable. She looked like a pixie. I nodded and we walked out of the stands to meet the boys at the bottom. Malfoy immediately engulfed Bella in a hug, despite her very loud protestations.

"No! You're all sweaty! Get off!" it was funny to see them interact. They were very close; Hu and I weren't that close, maybe we should be. Al just watched Bella, a small smile on his face. _Oh yes, he likes her too._ I walked up beside him and nudged him with my elbow before looking to Bell, who was still trying to get her brother to let her go and not wipe his sweat all over her, and then back at Al. the look on his face was priceless. _You know?_ He mouthed at me. I raised my eyebrow and gave him a look. _Of course I know._ Time to get the brother out of there so the two of them could talk.

"Malfoy?" he looked over at me, a stupid grin on his face. "No. No that's not – no, don't you dare! Malfoy!" he had already grabbed me. You'd have thought he had gone swimming! Bella and Al were laughing as I struggled against Malfoy's ridiculously strong grip. "You are disgusting." He laughed, a full on belly laugh. I tried to tell Bella with my eyes that she and Al should disappear while Malfoy was distracted. She immediately understood, touching Al's arm before walking away behind the stands.

"Where are they going?" he sounded concerned. _Think fast Rose._

"I said we were going to do the prefects schedule and they scarpered. Apparently it isn't an interesting thing to talk about."

"Isn't interesting? They have no taste." He laughed again. "Do you mind if I shower first? If you hadn't noticed I'm a tad sweaty."

"Just a tad." I said, smiling at him. We walked off towards the castle and I was hoping with all of my heart that Bella and Al talked it out. _They would be so cute together,_ I thought as I walked side by side with Malfoy. His personality had done a complete 180 since the train. It was nice to see him back to normal, even if normal for Malfoy was gross and a little annoying. _I feel safe here._ What had he meant by that? Bella hadn't said anything about something happening at home. She told me about every argument her parent's had, mainly because if she was in earshot of it she would floo straight over to me. _I feel safe here._ _I feel safe here._ _I feel safe here._ What was he scared off? I tried to be sneaky and look at him out of the corner of my eye but all I could see was my hair.

"Weasley, you're going the wrong way again."

"How can you know where it is already? We've been back for a day for Merlin's sake!" I followed him down the right corridor, looking slightly petulant I'm sure. He merely laughed. _Stupid boy with a stupidly good memory._ He said the password and walked into the common room, going straight up the stairs to shower thankfully. I walked into my room to get some parchment and a pen; I had no patience for quills. Unfortunately, my bathroom door was slightly ajar and I could see straight at Malfoy… who had no shirt on… and was extremely nice to look at. _STOP OGGLING MALFOY!_ I shouted at myself, snapping back to reality. I grabbed my stuff and practically ran downstairs. _Oh Merlin. Calm down. Malfoy did not see you_.

"He didn't see you, he didn't see you, he didn't see you." I repeated to myself as I settled down on the sofa and opened my book. I couldn't focus on the words at all. Stupid Malfoy and his stupidly toned body. _Stop it._ _Words. Orwell. Reading._

"Sorry about that. Are you ready?" he was walking down the stairs. His hair was still wet and he was pulling a t-shirt on. Lots of pale skin. _Ahhhhh!_

"Yeah, yeah." I coughed. "I'm ready."

"Cool." He said, falling onto the sofa next to me. "Let's do this."

* * *

We'd gone down to dinner at half six. Neither Bella nor Al had been there, Lily said she hadn't seen them. We were only halfway through the schedule. I said having six prefects a night would be better than four, but Malfoy said four would be enough. It was difficult working with him; doing so reminded me why I disliked him. He refused point blank to see anyone else's point of view. Six was more efficient and safer. He was so annoyingly stubborn I wanted to punch him. I wolfed down my dinner so as to get back to the common room and sort out the mess he had done to my schedule. I could see him across the hall talking to his friends, hopefully he wouldn't notice me slip out.

"Rose, seriously," Lily was watching me, "chew please!" I over-exaggerated my chewing just to annoy her; she turned away looking disgusted and muttering "just like her dad." I was just like dad, and there was nothing wrong with that. The food cleared away and I was about to leave but there was a pecan pie right in front of me. I grabbed a slice, a napkin, and ran off with the warm pie tucked safely in my cardigan pocket.

"Leaving so soon Rose?"

"Aw dammit. Why won't you let me put six prefects on a night?"

"Six is unnecessary! There's always been four a night, why break from tradition?" we were walking up to our common room while fighting. If we had stayed outside of the Great Hall we would have definitely attracted a crowd.

"Six makes sense, four never made sense. Some traditions need to be broken, why not break this insignificant one rather than a big one, like wearing clothes to class!"

"That is a ridiculous argument and you know it. Four is better. That way the prefects don't have to do multiple nights! It's the fairest way!" he turned off down towards the common room. I still had no idea where I was going.

"Well – But – they're prefects! They should expect to be working multiple nights!"

"They've never worked multiple nights before. Four is better. Now you know it but you're still fighting to protect your stupid pride. Four is better than six!" he was right. I knew that four was better; somewhere around the 'wearing clothes to class tradition' I had realised that four made more sense, but he was right, I was protecting my pride. I didn't want to lose, I _hated_ to lose, especially to Malfoy. Dad told me I had to beat him in everything. We'd arrived back at the common room now. I sullenly slumped on the sofa as Malfoy smirked next to me. _Stupid bastard with the stupid pretty face. No Rose!_

"Now all we have to do is work out who to pair up." Malfoy said. I was still sulking. "Rose. Don't be silly, I won't tell anyone you lost alright?"

"Fine. Who should work together then?"

"I think the pairs should be the same year, but not the same year on the same night. That way the fifth years aren't without a little bit of experience."

"That makes sense. Having older students around should keep them from simply wandering off – well, some students."

"I know Taz isn't the best role model but he's a good guy. I've known him forever."

"The only problem is Quidditch. We don't want people missing practice." Malfoy nodded, looking over at the list of prefects.

"Taz and myself are the only two at the moment that do both, but I know Lore wants to try out for the team."

"Alright, when do you have practice?"

"Thursday night and Saturday morning." I drew a rough table, writing in SQ under Thursday and Saturday.

"Okay, so how about Taz on a Monday, and we'll put Lorelai on a Tuesday just in case."

"Alfie I think wants to try out too."

"Right, Flint can go on… Friday?" Malfoy considered this for a moment.

"That should be okay. I mean, patrol ends at midnight and practice is at nine. If he makes the team he'll get enough sleep." I scribbled their names in. "When's Gryffindor practice?"

"Tuesday and Saturday afternoon. Hufflepuff are Friday and Sunday, Ravenclaw are Wednesday and Sunday. So Alice will have to do Mondays," I wrote her name in, "lucky her, she's partnered with Zabini. She is so going to murder me." I said to myself. Malfoy chuckled.

"What do we do about everyone else?" I looked up at Malfoy at the exact moment he looked at me. Our eyes locked for a moment before I turned back to the paper. _What is happening to me?_

"Randomly stick people together and they can like it or lump it."

"Like it or what?"

"Sorry, muggle phrase. I mean they're going to have to deal with it. If anyone has any serious problems, we can change it." I didn't dare look at Malfoy again, but I could feel his gaze on me. _Spending so much time together is going to send me doolally._

* * *

Eventually the little table was full. Malfoy and I had put ourselves in to patrol on a Wednesday and a Friday. He was a little peeved that he had to wake up early on a Saturday for Quidditch, but they were the only days left. The two of us were sat in the common room: he was stretched out on the sofa while I was curled up in one of the arm chairs. I was finishing _Down and Out_ while he was reading the defence textbook. I was really looking forward to this year in DADA. The old professor, Professor Dunaid, retired at the end of last year; the new one hadn't arrived yet. It was exciting getting someone new. Dunaid had been around for years; he had been a brilliant professor but he was very old by the time he finished. He could barely show us any practical work by the end. For the last month of sixth year we had been learning about the theory behind patronuses. Al and I had a bit of a head start on this. Uncle Harry and dad used to show off their patronuses all of the time when we were younger and mum had explained to me how they worked. I loved the idea that a single happy thought could battle so much darkness. While dementors weren't common nowadays, the charm was still a staple in defensive magic.

Malfoy was making notes when I finished my book. He was writing in the margins with his impossibly neat handwriting; mine always looked like a train wreck. "Night Malfoy." I said, picking up the book and forcing myself out of the chair.

"What?" he said, looking a little dazed. It was pitch black outside; the stars were small pinpricks in the inky black sky. The moon had passed by our window hours ago.

"I'm going to bed. It's about," I looked at my watch, "half one." He too looked at his wrist.

"Oh. I had no idea it was so late." He pushed himself off the sofa. We were now stood next to each other and once again I was struck with how tall he was. Bella was so tiny. "Goodnight Rose." He said before turning away and walking up the stairs. For a brief second when we were stood silently, it felt like he was going to kiss me. For the second time that day a random memory from fourth year popped into my head. Bella and I were on our way out to herbology when Al and Malfoy had caught up with us. Malfoy had asked me to Hogsmede and I laughed at him. It was a joke, one of his friends had put him up to it apparently. It really brightened my day. Bell and I walked out into the rain with smiles on our faces. She too thought it was hilarious. It was strange how much my head was going back to fourth year recently. Nostalgia and fear will do that to you. After that point in fourth year Malfoy had been less friendly towards me. Maybe he had wanted me to say yes just so _he_ could laugh in _my_ face. _Honestly, is there anything more fragile than the male ego?_ I pulled on one of my dad's old Chudley Cannon's t-shirt to sleep in. I was very much looking forward to this year. Not just because I was head girl and that was exciting in and of itself, but because of all of the things I was going to learn. What would my patronus look like? Mum was an otter and dad was a jack russel. What would I be? I knew I was very similar to mum; I had her brains and we had a lot of things in common, but I shared even more with dad… the unknown was far too intriguing. I knew by the end of the year I would have cast a full body patronus. I fell asleep thinking that, and wondering what everyone else would get. James had been a black dog. Apparently some people had been talking about it in divination and Trelawney had had to go and tell him he was the bringer of death. It really hadn't helped her that he was in transfiguration at the time. McGonagall was subbing for the new transfig professor, Professor Mutare, and had pretty much chased the old divination prof out of the room. McGonagall was thrilled that James was a dog, just like Sirius she had said. Would Al be a snake? What would Bella be? Thoughts of silvery animals sent me to sleep. Everyone will know by the end of the year at the latest. How exciting.


	4. Chapter 4

The hall was quite at quarter past seven. I had woken up ridiculously early; I had showered and left the common room before Malfoy was even awake. There were about fifteen people, including myself, dotted around the tables. McGonagall wasn't even here yet. I had pancakes in front of me and a small book of poetry by my side. _Bella will be down soon_ , I thought as I placed some pancakes on a plate for her. I spotted Hagrid on the end of the teachers' table and he waved enthusiastically at me. I had felt terrible for dropping Care of Magical Creatures, but he understood. I still had tea with him every week though, just to make sure he was ok, and to look at the new animals he had managed to hide in his hut. I wandered over to where he was sat. "Good morning Hagrid."

"Hello Rosie!" he said, giving me a hug. It was a lot easier to do so when he was sat down. "How're you doin'? How was your summer?" Hagrid and I got into a conversation about my two weeks in Greece with my parents and Hugo. The fact I hadn't found a Pegasus or a griffin was incredibly disappointing.

"Do you know who the new defence against the dark arts professor is?" I asked him, desperate to know. He tapped the side of his nose. So it was still a secret.

"He'll be arrivin' soon. He's been off in Egypt." I nodded before saying bye and walking back over to my seat. My pancakes were still warm when I sat down. _I love magic._

* * *

Bella wandered in at twenty to eight, along with half the school. She immediately fell into the seat next to me and devoured half of her pancakes. "Merlin Bell, you'll choke on those if you aren't careful!" she swallowed a huge mouthful and sat shovelling the rest of them into her mouth. "Did it not go well with Al? Do I need to kill him?"

"No! It went great with him. We're going to Hogsmede together next week. He was so lovely."

"Then why are you trying to choke on a pancake?" I asked, gesturing to her plate. She had eaten so much food in such a short amount of time.

"Those two heinous _shrews_ I'm sharing a room with." The heinous shrews in question appeared in the great hall at that moment. Bree spotted us and smirked at Bella's expression of hatred. They sat down near Nott and Zabini who looked less than thrilled that they were there. "I may kill them at some point this year." She said, staring at Bree's annoyingly perfect hair. Bella and I never looked anything like first thing in the morning. Mornings were hateful… until about ten o'clock.

"Anyway," I said, finishing my plate of pancakes and grabbing a nearby bowl of strawberries, "tell me what happened with Al."

"Okay. After we left you guys we went down to the lake; thank you for covering for us by the way. So we were sat under the big willow tree on the side of the lake. He was upset I'd left this morning, he wanted to talk about what happened." She blushed and looked down, "He wanted to tell me how much he liked me and had for a long time." I squealed quietly.

"I knew it! I knew it!" Bella laughed at me.

"I know you did. I told him how much I had always liked him and then he… he kissed me." I squealed again, this time drawing looks from a nearby group of third years. I gave them a look before turning back to Bella, hugging her tightly.

"I am so happy for you!" I said in her ear. They were going to be so happy.

"Can I ask you a massive favour?" she said, turning back and eating a normal sized forkful of pancakes.

"Anything."

"Don't mention it to Scorp. I don't want him to have a total freak out and do something to Al."

"You may be too late," I said, pointing towards an angry Scorpius and a sheepish looking Albus. Bella and I quickly got out of our seats and rushed to the two boys in the doorway. "Outside, before we get an audience," I said, pushing Al out the door and into the bright sunshine.

"Scorp, before you say anything –"

"No, Bella. What the hell is going on? You two? Honestly? You're my best friend Al! How could you do this? That's my sister! _My sister!_ There's a code about these things right?"

"Calm down Scorp, this isn't me messing around. I swear. I really like her, I promise." Albus said the last part looking directly at Bella, who blushed and smiled.

"I really like him too Scorp." She said. Malfoy was clearly thinking everything through in his head. He was looking at the two of them, who could not take their eyes off each other. Malfoy was the older twin by four minutes and 17 seconds. He was always the big brother.

"Really? You really do like each other?" the two of them nodded simultaneously. "My best friend and my sister…" he smiled, "you know you could do so much better right Bell?"

"Hey!" Al said, looking rightfully annoyed.

"I don't think I could." She replied. I squealed again, and they all remembered I was there.

"What? They are perfect together! I'm so happy." I said, pulling both Al and Bella into an awkward hug. "They're probably handing out timetables, we'd better go back in." Malfoy stood next to me as we watched the pair of them walk off. Al nervously took Bella's hand; I knew she would be blushing and looking away as she squeezed his fingers. It's an adorable move perfected by me but looks totally natural. Malfoy was smiling too; a small smile, but he was pleased. Al and Bella were perfect for each other.

"You're happy for them," I said, pushing him slightly with my shoulder. Malfoy tore his gaze from the couple and looked at me. Damn his eyes.

"I'm not _unhappy_ for them." He said as we started walking towards the castle.

"Secretly you're pleased that your sister is dating your best friend. You would have cursed anyone else." He chuckled.

"You're probably right about that." Ahead of us, the new couple were stood in front of the door to the great hall, still hand in hand. "Are they not going to keep it quiet for a little while?"

"Like you can keep anything quiet in this school," I said. Everyone turned to look at them as they walked in. A Potter dating a Malfoy? It was unheard of. I knew Bella would be blushing like crazy: she hated being the centre of attention. Al walked her over to where we had left our stuff and sat down, always keeping a hold of her hand. She would be desperate to pull it away and get all the stares off her. I was glad Al didn't let her. Malfoy and I sat down across from the pair just as the timetables started whizzing about above our heads. I was really looking forward to getting it. I knew from Bella – and from my memory of last year – that Malfoy and I were taking pretty much exactly the same subjects. The only difference was I was taking Ancient Runes and he was doing Muggle Studies. As the mass of timetables started moving at alarming speeds towards their recipient, the whispers subsided. Bella's face was now only slightly pink. My timetable flew at me before the others got theirs; it nearly hit me in the face.

"Dangerous things are timetables," Al said, laughing as I jerked out of the way. The other three got theirs about the same time and we immediately started comparing. "Are we all in basically the exact same classes?" Al asked.

"I still can't believe you're doing divination," Malfoy said to Al. Dad and uncle Harry both tried to stop him from taking it, but he said it was an easy NEWT. He had a gift according to Trelawney.

"We have the same timetable," Bella said, "except you're doing runes and I'm doing history. I don't understand how you can do runes."

"Runes is fascinating! We're doing a big translation this year of an ancient Egyptian text. I'm really excited," I said, seeing that I had runes first "How can you stand history? Professor Binns sucks the life out of that subject. I could barely keep my eyes open in that class"

"I do admit, Binns isn't the most interesting of teachers… but the class is good and we – yeah it sucks, but you know I can't make heads or tails of those pictures you're studying."

"Pictures? They're runes!" this was a common argument between Bella and myself. "Calling them pictures diminishes them. It's a link back to ancient civilisations, and learning about their cultures and how they lived and… and…" I took a deep breath, "it's fascinating!"

"Thanks for abandoning us over there." Zabini slid into the seat next to me, effectively ending the series of contradictions between Bella and I. His merlin awful cologne immediately filled my nose. "Do you know how difficult it is to escape those two harpies?" he shook himself in disgust. Nott sat on the other side next to Al.

"That Finnigan girl is terrifying. Apparently, over the summer she got quite close to Petal…" the four boys all groaned.

"Who in their right mind calls a person 'Petal'?" I said. "I need to go and get my stuff from the dorm. You do runes don't you Nott?"

"Yeah. Have you got it first thing this morning?"

"I do indeed. See you there. See the rest of you in defence?" they all nodded as I waved and walked away. I was looking forward to this year; even though I knew I'd be spending a lot more time with Zabini and his terrible man perfume.

* * *

When I arrived back in my room Pippin was just waking up. He was the most adorable little thing. I'd bought him a little bed and made it up for him. He preferred the box. I pulled my runes and defence textbooks off the shelf, deciding that I would either go outside or to the library in my free period. I was toying up whether or not I should take my transfiguration stuff now or get it during lunch when I heard Malfoy come in. He had muggle studies first. It still surprised me that he was taking the subject, but according to Bella, he was brilliant at it. I left my room at twenty to nine, so I wouldn't be late for my first day. Malfoy came out of his room at the same time. He smiled weakly as he pushed past me. He was fine half an hour ago. I didn't dwell on his quick change in demeanour; he had done the same thing since getting off the train.

I was the first to get to runes. I pulled out my copy of _Spellman's Syllabary_ to look at some of the runes we had done last year. I had been reading for about five minutes when the book was snatched out of my hands. "Lorcan!" his annoying grin made me want to slap him, but I pulled him into a hug instead.

"Trust you to be here far too early."

"I'm not here far too early… I'm prepared. Shut up." He laughed at me.

"Are you excited for your last year head girl?" Lorcan was leaning against the wall next to me, trying to look cool. It didn't help that he still had pillow marks on his face and his shirt was inside out. I loved Lorcan, I loved that he was unapologetically himself. I also loved the fact that he made my cousin happy. Lorcan and Louis had started dating last year and they were the most perfect couple in the history of perfect couples.

"I am. It's weird thinking that after this year we won't be coming back. Anyway, that's still far off. Have you decided what you want to do? You know, after we finish?" Lorcan had changed his mind about what he wants in the future more times than I can count. When we were little all he wanted was to be a Magizoologist, like his dad. Since then he has wanted to be a journalist, a healer, an auror, a professor, a historian, a curse breaker, a Quidditch player, everything under the sun basically.

"I think so. I think I want to be an Unspeakable… with Louis." He looked down, smiling a little at the mention of his name.

"You know they don't like couples working together down there."

"I know. But I'd like for us to be able to talk about things like that. If we're both unspeakables, maybe we can at least talk a little bit about what we're working on. I wouldn't want to be the only one of us talking."

"Do you really want to be an unspeakable? Or just because Lou is?" he looked thoughtfully for a moment. I half expected him to get angry at the insinuation but that was the great thing about Lor, he never got angry.

"I do… I think. I don't know, it's –" he sighed, "it's difficult. I love him, I'd love to be able to talk about this stuff with him, but I don't know what I want." I hugged him again. I knew he'd always had trouble with this.

"Louis loves you. You can talk about anything other than your jobs you know. There's a whole world of possibilities." I smiled at him. "You'll find something you want to do. I know you will. Maybe you can find out more about being an unspeakable. See if it is something you actually want."

"Thanks Rose," He said, as the rest of the class appeared. There were so few of us studying runes. Apparently, only five people thought it was a fascinating subject. Nott came and stood by Lorcan and me; Lorcan immediately gave me a look. _Since when have you been friends with the Slytherins?_ Before I could reply, verbal or otherwise, Professor Stamati appeared. There had been three more in the class last year; obviously they didn't do so well in the end of year exams.

"Good morning class. Please come in." she opened the door and gestured for us to go in. there were only two desks in the room: one with three seats and one with two. Lorcan and I sat by the desk with three seats, Nott joined us. The other two were both prefects; Lydia Aubert from Ravenclaw and Cory Poole from Hufflepuff. I tried to think if I had paired them up… no, Cory was with Petal on a Saturday. I'd have to apologise to him.

"Now, as this is your final year, you will be working on bigger translations. This means you will be doing your work in groups. As long as you are all ok with the people you are sat with, these are your groups for this year." I knew how good Lorcan was at runes. He was always second behind me. I wasn't sure about Nott, but I knew Lorcan and I would be able to bring his grade up more than he could bring ours down.

"You will be translating several texts from various periods including; ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, and Aztec writings. You will start with a selection of Aztec codices," she waved her wand and a copy of an Aztec text appeared in front of us, "do as much as you can today. You will be working on this for the first few weeks. If you want to work on this outside of your lessons, you are more than welcome. Please begin." The three of us all pulled out our copies of _Spellman's Syllabary_ and I also grabbed my copy of _Advanced Rune Translation_. The book in front of us was a copy of _Codex Borbonicus_ from around 1519. The illustrations were beautiful.

"Shall we get started?"

* * *

The lesson went by very quickly. The three of us worked very well together and I didn't have to worry about Nott not being as good as Lorcan and me; he was brilliant at runes. Lorcan and I compared our timetables after class had finished. He wasn't taking herbology and was doing divination with Al, the rest we were together. I liked how the classes were sorted in the NEWT years; it was level and proficiency rather than by house. That meant I had classes with my best friends, regardless of house. Nott stood by the door, waiting for the two of us to finish packing our bags. "Do you guys want to meet up and do some work in the library this afternoon? I know we all have a free period between transfiguration and potions."

"Urghh, double potions," Lorcan said as we left the classroom.

"I still don't get why you hate potions," I said, "you're brilliant at it."

"I'm average, but thank you for the vote of confidence. No Slughorn _always_ mixes Ly and I up, and that dungeon smells funny."

"Try having him for your head of house. He's useless! I swear he can't even see the first years anymore; they're hidden under his stomach." The three of us laughed as we made our way down into the entrance hall. I had decided to go outside and take advantage of the nice weather. "I don't mind working this afternoon."

"What? Oh yeah. Lor, you distracted me." I hit Lorcan lightly on the arm. "Do you want to just go from transfiguration?"

"Sounds great. I'm actually going to find Taz and Scorp. See you later." Nott waved as he walked off in the direction of the library. Lorcan watched him as he left.

"He's actually quite nice," Lorcan said. "I'm going to go back up to my dorm. See you in defence?"

"Yeah, see you later." Lorcan started going back up the stairs as I made my way down the last few.

The door to the castle was open and the sun was streaming in. I was aching to grab my broom and fly around the grounds for a while but instead, I went and sat beneath the willow tree on the side of the black lake; it was one of my favourite spots in all of Hogwarts. It was shaded, but still bright. I leant back on the tree and closed my eyes for a moment, trying not to think about anything. I stayed sat like that for a little while, simply feeling the dappled sunlight on my face. I would never get over how beautiful it was, sat in this spot, doing nothing. I could hear some students paddling in the shores of the lake, and Hagrid's booming voice from a Care of class; third years, all very excited about learning from Hagrid, even though I knew they would also be terrified. Dad told us that in their first Care of lesson with Hagrid they met Hippogriffs. We studied Bowtruckles – hippogriffs were now OWL level. I pulled my bag over to me and grabbed the defence textbook. I was extremely excited about finally learning how to cast a Patronus. All I wanted to do this year was cast a corporeal one, so I knew, I actually knew, what I was.

"Hello Rose," I screamed slightly as someone snapped me out of my thoughts. The sun was shining down on them but I knew who it was.

"Malfoy!" he laughed as he sat down next to me. "What the hell was that for?"

"I only said hello," he sniffed, "no need to get annoyed." I huffed before turning back to my book. "Whatcha reading?" he said, leaning back against the tree.

"Do you remember a time when we didn't talk? I look back on those days very fondly."

"Aww, come on Rosie. I was only asking."

"Don't call me Rosie, Malfoy," I said, malice slightly entering my tone, "only my friends call me Rosie."

"Fine." He said shortly. Leaning back against the tree and pulling out his identical textbook.

"Nott was looking for you," I told him, not taking my eyes off the theory of patronus'

"Yeah, I saw him." He said shortly. I felt a little bad about snapping at him. He had scared me, and I don't like loud noises… I sighed. I knew I would be spending more time with him this year than I ever had before. _Apologise to him._

"I'm sorry I snapped. You scared me and –"

"And you don't like loud noises, I know. I shouldn't have scared you, but I did stand in front of you for a few minutes."

"Oh… and how did you know that I don't like loud noises?"

"For a Gryffindor, you are quite jumpy." He chuckled. "I'm sorry I scared you, and you're sorry you snapped at me. Is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship?" Malfoy smirked at me.

"I don't know if you and I will ever be _friends_ Malfoy, but at least we don't want to murder each other."

* * *

We read in silence for a little while. When we saw the third year class leaving Hagrid's we set off towards defence. The entrance hall was bustling with students moving off towards their next classes. It felt normal; seeing everybody rushing about, first years getting lost, older students laughing – that one was always a bit mean. Zabini and Nott were laughing at some of the first years coming out of potions. They spotted the two of us and pushed their way through the gaggle of students to reach us.

"Oh good, you've escaped from the snake pit," I said, stepping away from Zabini and smirking.

"That is definitely a Slytherin smirk. I see Scorpius has been rubbing off on you." Zabini said with a suggestive smirk. I looked at him in horror.

"He most certainly has not," I said. Nott and Malfoy both laughed. I started walking off towards the stairs, away from the disgusting teen. They all caught up with me quickly, since all of them had legs much longer than mine.

"I was looking over the runes again in my free period," Nott said to me, "I think we may have mistranslated one or two." I was slightly struck by his statement. I had seen that Nott was good at runes, but suggesting that _I_ had mistranslated a rune? I calmed my temper before answering.

"Ok… we can look over them after lunch." Malfoy had appeared on my left. I had never spent so much time surrounded by Slytherins before.

"What are you doing after lunch?" Malfoy asked.

"Runes assignment," Nott answered Malfoy before I could. Nobody talked again until we made it to defence. I immediately threw my arms around Bella as the three Slytherins moved over to where Al was stood.

"Promise me you will never leave me alone with more than one Slytherin ever again." Bella clutched me tightly. I could hear Alice laughing at us.

"I promise," she let go of me and I stepped away, "what happened?"

"They're all so… intense. I don't know it's weird. They're – it was awkward." Alice was still laughing.

"I promise. Do you want to spend some time with the Slytherins Alice?" her laughter stopped.

"Point taken. What even do we do in seventh-year defence? Haven't we learnt everything already?" I looked at Alice in shock.

"Have you not read the textbook?" both Alice and Bella looked at me, apparently other people don't read the textbook before class. We stood in a little group outside the door, waiting for the new professor. Albus and Bell kept sneaking glances at each other until I eventually pushed her over to him. Malfoy did not look happy.

"Get over it Scorp. Seriously. If Al and I want to be together then we will." They were met by a chorus of 'you guys are together' and 'finally!' Malfoy still didn't look impressed, but before he could mention anything the door opened ominously. Immediately people started whispering. Bella and I walked in together after being pushed by Al.

"Really nice way to show how you're going to behave in this rela – Uncle Bill?"

* * *

Good morning class. Some of you probably know me already," quick look towards us, "but for those of you who don't, I am Bill Weasley. I worked as a curse breaker for Gringotts – and still do. I am here for a few weeks while your headmistress finds a more permanent replacement." At this point professor Flitwick appeared in the doorway, smiling widely as he entered. "Good morning Fil – I mean Professor Flitwick." The ancient professor nodded before taking his place next to Bill. I was still absolutely flabbergasted. No one had mentioned anything about Uncle Bill being the interim professor. It suddenly dawned on me as to why Hagrid had been acting so secretive this morning. I was about to lean over and tell Bella before I remembered she had sat next to Al instead of me. Six years of us sharing a class and sharing a desk and the minute she gets a boyfriend she chooses to sit with him – where is the loyalty? Malfoy had sat next to me. Alice was going to but was pulled away by one of her Hufflepuff friends. I was just thankful it hadn't been Zabini sitting next to me.

"Good morning everyone. Nice to see you all again. This year, as I am sure many of you know, we will be tackling patronuses. As this terribly tricky charm is as much a part of my curriculum as it is Professor Weasley's, we will be working together to get you to conjure a fully corporeal Patronus."

"Today, we will be talking about the theory behind them and how they can be used," Bill said.

"And tomorrow, we will start the process of casting them," Flitwick finished. He left quickly after that, returning to his own classroom and probably a class. Everyone was tittering excitedly. We'd start casting them tomorrow? Isn't that a little early? In my head I was wondering how I could prepare, what memory to think of, how to hold my wand.

"I have so much reading to do…" I whispered to myself.

"Don't you think it's a little early to start casting them?" Malfoy whispered to me. He was extremely close to my face. Before I could answer, Bill had started his lecture and I was desperately trying to get down every piece of information he had said and written on the board.

* * *

Sitting in what would henceforth be known as my chair in the common room, I felt very pleased with the first day back. Learning we would be trying to conjure a Patronus on our second day had freaked me out and I had spent almost all of lunch reading through the textbook, desperately trying to prepare until Bella had put a blueberry muffin in front of me and taken the book out of my hands. All she had said was she knew how to take care of her Rosie. It was true, she did; I felt much better afterwards. Lorcan, Nott and I had then disappeared in the library and worked on our project; Nott had been right as well, we had translated one incorrectly. It changed the entire text. Potions had been less fun. Slughorn, now positively ancient, had spilt a potion all over the desk. The class had to be evacuated; apparently draught of silence fumes are not safe… who knew? Transfiguration had been fun though. Professor Mutare was one of the most enigmatic teachers at school. I was fascinated by transfiguration. Mum and dad were always a little weary of my love of it – especially when I proudly showed off how I had transfigured a goblet into a rat. This year we would be looking at human transfiguration and actually attempting it; everything short of teaching us how to become an animagus was fair game. I was brought out of my reverie by the door to the common room slamming shut; Malfoy was brought out of his by my scream. "Merlin's pants Rose! I thought you had Quidditch practice on a Tuesday!" Malfoy had moved into the room and was clutching the back of the sofa as if he'd had a heart attack. "Did you need to scream so loudly?"

"You know I don't like loud noises! Anyway, Bella decided the first practice would be Saturday, with tryouts."

"Tryouts so soon? Bell doesn't hang about does she?" he had jumped onto the sofa and was stretched out completely, feet sticking off the end and very close to my face.

"Please move your feet away from me," he smirked, but pulled himself into a better position, "and yes, Bella needs to get half a team. She's trying to convince Roxy to play keeper again now that she's a sixth year, but even then we need quite a few players," I said, before returning to my book.

"Whatcha reading?" he asked in an annoying tone.

"Poetry," I replied, "do you need something Malfoy or are you alright?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking. How is your runes project going?"

"Well, thanks. Nott's very good at runes." I carried on reading rather than really engaging him in conversation. I wasn't particularly bothered about talking with him at that moment.

"Is he? I've never done it before. I can't get my head around the pictures."

"They aren't pictures," I said, finally dropping the book and looking at him, "they're _runes._ Otherwise the course would be called ancient pictures. You and Bella are so similar, I swear."

"Runes, pictures…" he moved his hands as if weighing his options, "what's the difference?"

"Runes are complex scripts that allow a person to study ancient forms of magic and language, pictures diminishes that. They aren't little drawings, they're languages and spells and… and…" I couldn't think of another word, Malfoy was smirking at me, "stop calling them pictures because they are so much more than that." I was a little annoyed, especially because Malfoy was still smirking at me. "Please excuse me, I'm going upstairs."

"No Rose, I'm sorry. I won't call them pictures again, I promise." He looked truly apologetic, so I sank back down into my chair and carried on reading. "What poem are you reading?"

"It's called _When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be._ "

"By?"

"John Keats."

"Read it to me," he said, closing his eyes.

"You're very frustrating you know."

"I know… go on, read it," he urged, looking at me intently.

"Fine," I said shortly and he closed his eyes again.

 _"_ _When I have fears that I may cease to be_ _  
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,  
Before high-piled books, in charactery,  
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;  
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,  
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,  
And think that I may never live to trace  
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;  
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,  
That I shall never look upon thee more,  
Never have relish in the faery power  
Of unreflecting love;-then on the shore  
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think  
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink."_

He had opened his eyes again somewhere around the third line. I could feel him staring at me.

"You have a beautiful voice."

"Umm… thanks? I'm going to go to bed, night Malfoy," I said, practically running from the common room.

"Goodnight Rose."

* * *

I couldn't sleep. The incident with Malfoy was bothering me. It was nothing, a poetry reading and an innocuous compliment; it didn't mean anything. Malfoy was – Malfoy. Pippin was snoring softly in his box, kicking his legs and mewing softly every few minutes. I hadn't closed the curtains after coming to bed, the moon was illuminating my room in its pale glow; it was just visible around the corner of the window. All I had done was read him a damn poem! Why was it bothering me so much? He had gone to bed about an hour ago – he sounded like a herd of elephants walking up the stairs. _Go to sleep Rose. Go to sleep._ Tomorrow was going to be a big day; double charms was sticking in my mind. The second day back did seem very early to be learning to cast a Patronus. _That's what Malfoy said – oh shut up brain._


End file.
